04/26/10

Hello All,

This has been one of my favorite weeks on my mission so far. There are some changes happening in our area (our boundaries have gotten bigger) but I'm excited to keep serving here. The Lord has really helped us find people He's prepared to receive the gospel. We're busy with teaching appointments all throughout the week with people we've met recently. It's awesome.

I had my second to last interview with President Cutler on Friday; it was kind of sad. During our most recent Zone Conference he showed us a picture of our new Mission President and his wife (President and Sister Jones). We don't know too much but they're from California and they have seven children too. President told us he talks to them frequently and he got teary-eyed when he shared his testimony about how he knows they're going to be great. He also read a scripture out of D&C that talked about changes in the church but the gospel and the direction from God stayed the same.

One of the big things I've learned on my mission is how to feel comfortable with and accept change. It's comforting knowing the Lord is in charge of everything and He knows what's best for us. Whenever I've been unsure about something it's been nice to take my doubts to Heavenly Father to ask for a confirmation from Him...and he always comes through:)

Yesterday Sister Johnson and met a nice lady who was really involved in her faith. We knocked on her door and we talked with her for about and hour. She had heard a lot of negative things about the church and there were some things she thought we still practiced; we were more than happy to answer her questions. She wasn't really interested in us coming back but I love it when we are able to give people a better understanding of the things we believe.

It's getting hotter here...pray for me! Sister Johnson loves the heat and I love being cold so it's been interesting trying to accommodate each other. She let's me keep it pretty cool in our apartment but we don't spend too much time there. People here are really friendly and lots of them offer us water when we're out even if they don't want to talk to us, so that's been good.

Other than that there's nothing too new to report. Our investigators are doing well. i'm looking forward to another week here in Windcrest:). Thank you for all of your prayers.

Have a great week,

Sister Green

04/19/10

Hello all,

This week went well; I loved hearing from all of you. We were a little late getting to the library today so it took us awhile to get started and now there are lots of people waiting to get on. We'll try to be better next week. Thanks for all that you do. Have a great week.

Love you guys,

Sister Green

04/12/10

Hello,

This week was nice. We're working with a lot of wonderful people the Lord has helped us find. We also have our Zone Conference tomorrow so we're all excited for that. It's been nice working with Sister Johnson and learning from her. She's such and awesome missionary and she's really dedicated too...

A couple of months ago our Mission President compiled a series of talks by General Authorities who spoke about the Atonement. We had a schedule outlined for us each day as a mission for what we should read and it went all the way to Easter. I learned so much more about the Atonement just from reading these talks.

One big thing I took away from it was how I (we) can use the Atonement everyday. I use to think I had to wait until Sunday to partake of the sacrament to feel "clean". It's important to renew the covenants we made at baptism but for the past week or so, when I say my nightly prayers the Spirit lets me know of things I need to work on and do better the next day. Change use to be overwhelming but I've found that the Atonement of our Savior strengthens me as I strive to become like Him. I sleep better now.

Of the people we've been able to teach this week one of them is a lady named Maria. Sister Johnson and I were on our bikes when we saw her husband working outside in the yard. He told us his wife (Maria) was inside and that we could knock on the door. She let us in and we got to know her a little bit. She's a devout Catholic and she has a lot of faith in our Savior. From talking with and being around her she's a great example of someone who lives what she believes. She doesn't know much about our religion but she has a desire to learn more. We taught her the restoration when we first met her and a couple of days later we brought a member (Sister Coopwood) the bishop's wife with us.

The Coopwoods use to be Southern Baptist but they were converted forty years ago in Finland. In our appointment with Maria she asked Sister Coopwood what made her want to join the church and she bore a strong, powerful testimony as she shared her conversion story. It was great. She's not ready to change religions but she's so open to learning more and she enjoys reading from the scriptures (including the BofM).

Matt also came to church this Sunday. It's one of the best feelings in the world to see people come to church. Of all the things I've enjoyed on my mission that's been one of them, helping people build upon their faith. It reminds me of something our Mission President told us once at a Zone Conference.

He told us to imagine we were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and we have an unlimited supply of life reservers. All around us there are people who are drowning in different distances in the water. It's up to us to do everything we can to get those life resrevers to them. After all we do, they make the decision to grab onto the life reserver to be saved but we still do everything we can to help them.

So it is with all of us who have the gospel in our lives. It's up to us to share it with those around us who are "looking for the truth but they know not where to find it". We may be rejected, we may have to try our hardest with some, and with others we won't have to try as hard because they were waiting (prepared), but we still do what we can.

I love analogies, especially this one. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

The church is true,

Sister Green

04/05/10

Hello Family,

This week for transfers went well like it always does. I'm getting use to this routine now. My new companion is Sister Johnson. She and I went on exchanges together for 24 hours a couple of weeks ago and now she's my companion. She's an awesome missionary. She's a really hard worker and is really good with the people. She only has about twelve weeks before she goes home (She leaves the same time my trainer, Sister Larrosa leaves). I've already learned a lot from her so I have a feeling that our time together will go well.

We also have a new Elder/District Leader, Elder Wilms. I mention him because his story is awesome. He was baptised with his family when he was fourteen years old. They all instantly became less-active and through the love and support of good friends and members a long the way he started going back to church when he was nineteen. He left for his mission when he was twenty and he's been out a little over a year. His dad also started to go back to church a year into his mission so his service is blessing the lives of his family. I'm so amazed with eveyone's story. All of the missionaries I've gotten to know have atleast one BIG thing that could've stopped them from being a missionary but with the help of the Lord they were able to overcome it and their testimonies, in return are so solid. It's been such a blessing to be able to associate with them.

We continue to see miracles here. Saturday after the last session of Conference we picked a part of our area and started trackting there. Everyone we talked to wasn't interested and no one really answered thier doors when we knocked. the whole time we just didn't feel like that was the place for us to be but we kept through it trying to be diligent. For about an hour and a half we did this until we both decided to head in the opposite direction.

We walked for about ten minutes and on our way we met a couple (in their late thirty's early forties) named Matt and Nikki who were on their way home after a bike ride. We introduced ourselves and started to talk about the gospel. Matt was interested and accepted our invitation to share more with them. We began with a prayer and we started to teach the restoration. After we finished Matt told us how he had been looking for a church to go to. He told us he studied and looked into lots of different religions to join but wasn't able to find one yet. He also told us that he wondered why we as [Mormons] have another "bible" and one day he picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon and he opened up to 2 Nephi 29; where it talks about why the Lord gives us more scriptures. He said it helped him to understand it better. Talking to him we could see how the Lord prepared him and how his heart was opened to learning more. He told us he knew things happened for a reason. We explained and invited them to General Conference and gave them directions to the church. When Sister Johnson and I got home we retraced our steps and realized that it was nothing short of a miracle being able to meet them when we did. If we would have been a couple minutes off we would've missed seeing them.

.....Okay so this story gets exceptionally better. The next day (Sunday) Sister Johnson and I went to the church with the Elders to watch Conference again. Five minutes before the first session starts Sister Johnson goes in the hallway (where I can still see and hear her:) to call Matt to see if he can make it. She gets his voicemail and leaves him a message. When she's hanging up she hears someone behind her say "Nikki won't be able to make it". It was Matt! He came by himself, dressed very nicely may I add, and he had his Book of Mormon in his hand. It was awesome! The feeling (although I've never experienced this yet) is equivalent to how a parent feels when their child is away from home but still decides to go to church and make good choices. It was nice.

Throughout the session I kept looking at him through my peripheral vision and he never took his eyes off the screen. I also loved that President Monson spoke during the first session because he got to see and hear from a living prophet. We were able to talk to him for a few minutes afterwards and he said he enjoyed it. All of the talks were wonderful and I was so happy that he could hear from the Leaders of out church.

This Easter went well also. We had dinner with the Rodriguez family. They feed us a lot and we ate with them in between Conference sessions. It was my first Texan Easter I've had in a long time. We had brisket as the main meat with a black bean salad, some rice that Sister Rodriguez makes and it's really good, and other little things to go on the side. They have a son on a mission right now so they're really good about making sure we're taken care of especially on the holidays.

That's pretty much all of the news over here. I'll keep you posted on any other changes. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter (it sounds like you did). Love you guys.

Sister Green

03/30/10

Hello everyone,

Sorry I'm not good at remembering to tell you about transfers; but as you've guessed they are this week. We got our calls last night and Sister Boyd will be leaving and I will be staying for at least one more transfer. Time goes by fast but I've learned a lot from each of my companions so I'm excited to keep learning.

This past week has been nothing short of miracles. I don't even know where to begin. The Hernandez family, the family where the husband's a member but his wife and fourteen year old daughter aren't are doing very well. We've been teaching them a little over a month and their testimonies have really grown. This Sunday exactly a year from when Brother Hernandez was baptised, he got to see and baptise his wife and daughter. We asked him to give a talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost and it was so powerful. There isn't a better feeling than to see families living and enjoying the blessings of the gospel together. He was so happy to have his family be together.

On Friday Sister Boyd and I had the rare and probably only opportunity to have two youth from another ward (about thirty minutes away) come spend a day with us. Our Mission President called us to give us more information and there were only 13 youth who were doing it. The purpose was to get the youth excited about missionary work and hopefully spark a desire for them to serve missions. The girls were sixteen and seventeen years old (not related) and they were with us from 6:00 P.M. until 11:00 A.M. It was a vey interesting experience. We weren't told much but the only big requirement was that we needed to teach the restoration to someone.

They were both so willing and ready to go out and work. We ended up teaching the restoration to a recent convert, Sister Laurie (the nineteen year old blind girl). They did a great job teaching different principles and their testimonies were so pure and perfect. The night went by fast and after our lesson we went back to the apartment to have dinner, and they cooked!

The next morning (Saturday) they exercised with us, had breakfast, and we did our studies. During companionship study we did some role plays with them which consisted of teaching lessons and door approaches! We also took time to answer questions that they had. I was so surpised at some of the questions they've been asked by their friends and they actually took time to answer and wanted to explain things to them rather then just letting the moment pass by. One of the girls even got on LDS.org and typed in a couple questions online to get an answer.

I never realized how different it is for youth in the church, even in a different state. Sister Boyd and I thought 6:30 was going to be too early for them but they wake up every morning at 5:30 to go to seminary. I use to worry about the youth, especially my younger brothers and sisters but after this experience I don't anymore. My testimony of the the knowledge Heavenly Father has has been reaffirmed. We're all on this earth at the exact moment and time that we need to be. They were both so bold and very mature even in difficult situations. It made me want to be more like them and look at what I can do to be a better missionary/ person.

My time is running out on the computer and there are people waiting to get on after me but I love you all and will update you next week on how transfers go. Thank you for all of your support.

Love you lots,

Sister Green

03/22/10

Hello,

This weeks e-mail is super short. I spent most of my e-mailing time updating this new MyLDS account. It's faster and it's Googles Gmail so it's supposed to be a lot better. My new e-mail address is sadie.green@myldsmail.net. I'll still get other e-mails if you use ssg193 but just letting you all know. I'll write more next week....I know I say that every week but I mean it:)

Love you,

Sister Green

03/15/10

Hello Everyone,

So...this past week has been quite the character builder. On Friday we talked to the Elders in our area who had received a call from a member in the ward Bro. Ratliff. He was asked to give a talk in church on missionary work and he wanted us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve". The Elders accepted and told Brother Ratliff that they would tell us so he didn't need to give us a call.

When they told us we were singing in sacrament meeting my first reaction was "No way"! but the Spirit softened my heart and I decided to just do it. It took me awhile to become excited but my fellow missionaries were patient with me and we all wanted to help Brother Ratliff with whatever he needed. He asked us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve" and he wanted the congregation to join in on the second verse.

When we were up there singing my leg (the right one) was shaking.... bad! I don't know why but I guess that's my soft spot for when I have to sing in public. We made it through and I quickly came to the conclusion that that was a lot better than having to do a solo.

When the congregation joined in on the secong verse I thought "Wow, that sounds a lot better when everyone's singing". After we sang and sat down Brother Ratliff continued with his talk and said " As good as they sounded, wasn't it better when we all sang together"? He then bore testimony that that's how missionary work should be. Not just the missionaries working alone but the members also getting involved and helping out. It was a really good talk and it was worth getting up there singing to help him get a good message across.

We also had our Zone Conference earlier in the week and it was nice to see President and Sister Cutler. They talked about changing for the better and continuing to improve ourselves. President Cutler used a really good scripture from the Book of Mormon in Moroni Chapter 9:6. I don't remember it word for word but Mormon is writing to Moroni telling him about all of the bad things that their people are doing. He knows that their hearts are hardened but Mormon tells Moroni to continue to be diligent. He tells him that they have a labor to perform and if they would cease to labor, then they would come under condemnation.

President Cutler gave us the same incouragement and it's something that Sister Boyd and I have shared when we have our dinner appointments with members as well. Sometimes we don't see the "fruits of our labors" but we still need to be diligent and go about doing good. We need to keep preparing ourselves and become better in this life. The verse reads a lot better than I can so feel free to look it up:)

The area here is still going well. My Spanish is going well also. I still don't/can't speak as much because I don't have anyone to really speak to, but I still study everyday and my understanding of the language continues to improve. Since Sister Boyd and I are both English Sisters and the area that we're in doesn't have a lot of Spanish, our Mission President wants us to study the language for 1/2 hour instead of and hour.

Other than that I can't really think of anything else this week. I still love being a missionary. It's great to be able to share the gospel with people and help them feel the pure love of Christ.

As always thank you all for your support and love. Have a wonderful week. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love you guys,

Sister Green